Question

This guy calls me and says he works for a collection agency, but the caller ID is 000-000-0000 I its a scam?

The caller ID name is 000-000-0000 and a phone number but when I go to whitepages.com and put the # it its unpublished and says the provider name and the city the phone is in, which is the same as my city. I have talked to him before and he knew little about my medical bill and he said that I could call him back at his home number...?!?! I never heard of the collection agency he says he is calling from so Should I remain sceptical or am I being over paranoid?

a few seconds ago 17 Answers

Best Answer

Call him back at his home ... wow that's very odd. I would continue to be skeptical , next time he calls , Ask to speak to another rep in the agency .. see what he says .. if he lets you .. it might be real .. if he freaks .. then you know it's fake. Good Luck.

a few seconds ago

Other Answers

you dont talk to ANYONE over the phone about anything, ..you simply tell them to contact you by mail, ..and hang up, and you give out NO information.
just hang up on them tell them they are harrassing you.
They'll stop
if its legit, the will contact you by mail.

His home #? I don't think you're being paranoid... I think you have every right to be cautious and wary of this sicko! I really hope you didn't give him any of your personal information (ss #, home address, home phone #, etc.) If you already gave you his home #, I would go to the closest police station and report his @$$! It definitely sounds like a scam to me.

you shouldn't have to call him at his home phone...ask what company name is and # and call there...if there is no company report him...don't give out any personal info you are not paranoid...he could be some creep who went through your garbage and found an old bill...use a shredder from now on or burn out bills in your back yard!!

Never communicate with a debt collector by phone. Simply saying the wrong thing could cause the statute of limitations on your debt to restart.
When and if they do call, simply tell them to contact you only by mail. If they ask for your address, do not give it to them. Let them hire someone to track you down. The more money they have to spend to find you/send you things, the greater the chance that they will stop bothering you. They can't sue you in court without your address because if they can't serve you the papers, it makes it harder for them to proceed with any case.
Many debt collectors do work from home. He may be a contractor or simply a private individual who has decided to purchase bad debt and try to get people to pay something. I received a letter a few years ago on an old debt from a man telling me that he bought my debt and wanted me to pay a certain amount. He described this strange sob story about how he had four daughters in college, etc etc. Needless to say I never responded to his request, but sure enough, on my credit report it showed him to be the owner of the debt.
Moral to the story -- when debt collectors call, tell them to stop and that you will only communicate with them by mail.

Hi monkeystoneart -
There is no real number 000-000-0000. When companies call you, like debt collectors, they can use their dialing systems to project whatever number they would like. The important number is the number that they leave on your voicemail. If they are not leaving voicemails, it is probably because they are using an auto-dialer to repeatedly call people until someone picks up but don't have it set to leave a message.
If that's the case, next time you talk to him, tell him that you would like to call him back and ask for the number with his extension. Then you can look up the number at http://www.callferret.com to see what other people are saying about it.
Did he happen to say that he works for NCO Financial? It looks like they have a history of using this as one of their Caller ID numbers and they are one of the most notorious of the debt collection agencies. See the second link below for hundreds of comments about NCO.
Just because he works for a debt collector doesn't mean you have to be worried. You may not truly owe the money, the debt could be too old to legally collect (Federal law typically requires credit bureaus to drop negative information after seven years and you are not obligated to repay it.), they could be trying to "re-collect" a bill you have already paid... or dozens of other "tactics" they like to employ.
If it is NCO or a similar junk debt collector, you shouldn't pay them a dime. Instead, call up the company you originally owe the money to and negotiate with them instead.
If I can be of more help with the debt collector, feel free to email me.

It is probably legit. The reason that it may come up with all zeros is that an agency is using multiple line system in their office. So when he calls out, it doesn't register a number because it is looped in with the main #. If you are concerned about the business, either look in the phone book for the name of the agency or you can go to the secretary of state website for your state and search for the business entity. It will show you if they are in business, who the owners are, who holds certain positions, etc.

You are not being paranoid. If he has little information about your bill, it could be a scam. Any way why would someone getting paid by the hour and/or commission, give you their home phone number; Especially if he has no way to document the conversation or monetary transaction?
If I were you I would just call the medical service provider and speak to their billing department. Also, is the total amount due by you match the amount on your insurance company's Explanation of Benefits (EOB)?
Also if you are not late making your payments, why are they calling you?
Now most bill collecting agencies have ways to hide their Caller ID information. This is to protect their people and to protect your privacy in case someone browses through your ID log.

Avoid these calls.
In many cases, old debts that were 'written off' by a lender, credit card company, bank or hospital have been "sold" to another party. If the 'debt' the are referring to hasn't shown up on your credit report, IGNORE THESE CALLS.
For instance, say you defaulted on $1000 credit debt several years ago. You somewhow settled with the creditor and they wrote the debt off. Now, they get somebody who is willing to pay, say, $300 to THEM for YOUR 'settled' debt. They do this in the bet that you'll cough up $1000 or even $500 to 'settle' it (again). So they call you. They hound you. THey say they are with a collection agency. At this point you still owe NOTHING. It's settled right? So say you get tired and are scared and you listen to them. They say something like "Well, you still owe this debt and if we can start getting payment on it, even $10 a month, to pay it off, it will 'clear your credit'.
WRONG. Once you agree that the 'debt' is back and reinstated, you are STUCK! You basically agreed to pay them $$$ for a debt that was already writen off!!!
It WILL show up on your credit again and you'll get hosed by these jerks, especially if you decide AFTER the fact you do not want to pay them.
If you KNOW all your debts are settled, HANG UP ON THESE GOONS! Do NOT talk to them, do not take their calls and TELL THEM TO STOP CALLING YOU. If they do not, contact the Better Business Bureau and possibly a lawyer if they continue to harass you.

it's possible it may be a scam. if it was a real collector, he would know more than "a little" about your debt. nex time he calls, get the name of the agency he works for, his name, direct extension at "work" , name of his supervisor and their contact information. Take the info you get and contact your city call. They will be able to find out if this is a honorable business, or contact the better business way.

It is a debt collection agency. They have purchased a defaulted collection account from another company. When a debt goes unpaid for an extended period of time, sometimes the company will sell the debt for pennies on the dollar, in hopes of getting something instead of a complete loss. It is now the responsibility of the purchasing company to collect on the original debt. If you aren't morally against not paying debts, wait it out long enough, and maybe they will give up or sell the debt to yet another company. And so on... I would suggest you pay any outstanding debt to avoid any future credit problems. Good luck!